


Could Have Been

by pantswarrior



Category: Final Fantasy XII
Genre: Community: areyougame, Gen, Mirrors, Twins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-05
Updated: 2010-10-05
Packaged: 2017-10-12 11:09:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/124225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pantswarrior/pseuds/pantswarrior
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabranth might say that he can hardly recognize the man in the mirror, but he does.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Could Have Been

Very little remained of the boy he had once been, aside from his anger. Many years had passed, and although time had dulled even those memories, they were easily recaptured with no more than a glance in the mirror.

While still young, he had come from Landis to Archadia, and he had conducted himself as an Archadian since, out of concern for his mother's safety. As he had grown, he had kept himself clean-shaven, as was the fashion in Archades; he had never before seen how he might appear with more than two-days' growth of beard. It made him appear older, he thought - older, and less civilized, and such a thought conflicted strongly with the realization that he resembled his father. Never before had he seen the resemblance so clearly.

Yet he did not need to seem so much older; a summer night's passing would have been sufficient.

He had not seen his brother for half their lives, since the night Basch had fled their homeland. Ever since, he had pictured his twin as looking much like himself, as that was how he remembered Basch - identical in appearance, entirely different in mannerism. It was... uncanny... when he had heard the agents' reports, been given advice regarding the imitation of a man who should have required so little effort to impersonate. Uncanny, and yet gratifying, for he had no desire to share anything, including appearance, with someone such as his brother.

That had been his initial belief. Now, as he regarded his reflection, he envied his brother. He had abandoned them, yes, and he could not be forgiven, but devoid of the trappings of rank or army or even regional fashion, as a man standing nearly bare in naught but his battle linens... he not only resembled their father. With the beard, with his hair grown long - and to an Archadian unruly - Basch looked like a Landisser.

There were still those who lived in their homeland, keeping their customs and cultures alive despite the conquest. Judge Gabranth had asked assignment there as he advanced through the ranks, to ensure that his countrymen were not mistreated. They had seen him as a judge, as an Archadian, and that was how he had presented himself. He had never mentioned the name fon Ronsenburg, nor even Noah - he'd spoken little enough in the presence of Landissers, for the turn of his tongue as he spoke would have made his origins all too clear. But he had watched them, and watched over them, and been pleased that they refused to let themselves disappear into the blurred culture of Archadia.

He, however, had done exactly that. His brother, it seemed, had not. Basch had clung to the stylings of his homeland, though they said he now spoke very much as a Dalmascan. What right had Basch, Gabranth thought angrily, to appear more a man of Landis than he, when Basch was the one who had abandoned his people?

There was a knock at the door, startling Gabranth out of his thoughts; his armorbearer had arrived, bringing not the black armor of his station, but the armor of a fallen Dalmascan knight. As the young man assisted him in fastening and adjusting it, Gabranth said nothing, merely regarding the image in the mirror with a wary gaze. This, he thought, was what his twin had become in the years since his departure. He did not know what to think or to feel, but when the messenger arrived, he nodded his readiness.

That evening, looking upon his brother's stunned expression as he stared up from the arms of the judges who held him to his knees, Gabranth again had the uncanny feeling of unreality. This was, without flaw, the same man he had seen in the mirror when for the first time in many years, he looked like a man of Landis.

Gabranth's heart was full of loathing, and not only for his brother, when he ordered the judges to escort Basch from the throne room.


End file.
